A Marine With Prosthetic Legs Is Running 31 Marathons In 31 Days

Rob Jones will never let his tragedy stop him from living

Finishing one marathon is already a testament to your physical and mental fitness—but attempting to run 31 of them in a month? That seems beyond the realm of possibility, yet it's exactly what one marine hopes to do to raise awareness for wounded veterans.

After serving in Iraq in 2008, Jones was deployed again in 2010, this time to Afghanistan. That’s when his life changed forever.

Jones was serving as a combat engineer, meaning he was part of a team responsible for detecting buried bombs. He was in Taliban territory, tasked with clearing an area thought to contain buried explosives, when he was wounded by a land mine, according to his website.

In 2012, Jones made his way to the Paralympics, where he won a bronze model in rowing. In 2014, he cycled from Maine to California—5,180 miles to be exact—and raised $126,000 for wounded veterans.

Now, he’s tackling a month of marathons, aiming to make that number even higher.

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“I believe that when you’re faced with a tragedy or bad circumstances, it’s better to use those circumstances to your advantage to make yourself stronger,” he told Megyn Kelly.

His journey starts today in London’s Hyde Park. Tomorrow, he’ll run in Philadelphia, followed by New York City, Boston, Toronto, Detroit, and 25 other major cities in the U.S.

“One of the things they teach you in the Marine Corps from the get-go is your mission is the most important thing, it’s more important than yourself,” Jones explained. “And so, my mission is to help my brother veterans get back into society and get back into their families, and that’s more important than me.”

More than 48,000 servicemen and women have been physically injured in the recent military conflicts, according to the Wounded Warrior Project. If you want to support Jones during his month of marathons, and help him raise money for wounded veterans, you can donate directly here.

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